The mobile phone thread

[Sir-Ominous]

Thanks guys :)

[H3R3T1C]

My contract will be renewed soon I'm on MTN Anytime 200 (R200 - R280 per month), currently loving the hell out of my Nokia E6-00 (however Symbian Belle spoiled it for me) I will either go for a Nokia Lumia 800/900 or I want to dip my toes into Androids especially that of the Sony/HTC Persuasion. I primarily use my phone to take decent enough photo's (read ****ty), utilise it for multimedia (mostly music playback) and the occasional game (apparently you can get a Pokemon Gold Version (GBA) for Mobile Phones, do want it!), obviously I also use it for calls and messaging and whatsapp...any suggestions. Was looking at the Sony Xperia GO (Active Sports Edition) or an HTC Desire. Or is the Samsung Galaxy SII still an applicable phone in todays tech wars?

[Toxxyc]

I've still got a Galaxy S (the first one) and it knock the sock off most phones I come across in my every day life. The S2 rocks. Get it. Get it now.

[Chevron]

My contract will be renewed soon I'm on MTN Anytime 200 (R200 - R280 per month), currently loving the hell out of my Nokia E6-00 (however Symbian Belle spoiled it for me) I will either go for a Nokia Lumia 800/900 or I want to dip my toes into Androids especially that of the Sony/HTC Persuasion. I primarily use my phone to take decent enough photo's (read ****ty), utilise it for multimedia (mostly music playback) and the occasional game (apparently you can get a Pokemon Gold Version (GBA) for Mobile Phones, do want it!), obviously I also use it for calls and messaging and whatsapp...any suggestions. Was looking at the Sony Xperia GO (Active Sports Edition) or an HTC Desire. Or is the Samsung Galaxy SII still an applicable phone in todays tech wars?

MTN have a great deal with the Anytime 200 now. You can get an Xperia T with 150MBs a month and a bunch of SMSs and included airtime for R349p/m. Just upgraded 3 weeks ago and it's what I got.

Definitely prefer it to my colleagues S3.

[gordanfreeman50]

This is so off topic but Chevron is back! Great to see you man!

[H3R3T1C]

MTN have a great deal with the Anytime 200 now. You can get an Xperia T with 150MBs a month and a bunch of SMSs and included airtime for R349p/m. Just upgraded 3 weeks ago and it's what I got.

Definitely prefer it to my colleagues S3.

HOLY MCGOOGLES MCMOOGLE! GEE CHEV! Long Time, No Siege? We all were starting to think you're an Urban Legend like Somebody's Uncle Barbarah or did Elvis give you a Day-Pass? Good To SEE YOU!

Okay, my Mom got her SIII Mini today and I must say that Android aint to bad - consider me technicoloured :P

[Wesley]

ZTE Mozilla will be shown off at MWC 2013

Mozilla's Firefox mobile OS (also known as Boot to Gecko) is almost golden and has created quite a bit of consumer interest, in addition to wooing manufacturers with a zippy interface, a lightweight UI and full HTML5 support. ZTE has confirmed it'll be one of the first companies to showcase the OS, running on the new ZTE Mozilla to be shown at MWC this February. ZTE will also announce a carrier partner for the phone in Europe and some launch dates as well. The Mozilla is rumored to feature a 3.5" capacitive touch screen with 800 x 480 resolution, 512MB RAM, a 5MP camera and a 1.5GHz processor. Those specs are actually more or less in line with what we've seen in many Windows Phones, specifically the Nokia Lumia 710, which has the same specs but a lower-clocked 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 with Adreno 205 graphics.

Source: Tom's Hardware

[Wesley]

Windows Phone 7.8 finally gets kicked into the arena

For the past year the original adopters of Microsoft's Windows Phone platform have been waiting patiently for the final update to the platform, 7.8, to reach their handsets. Its not all good news, however, because so far users have been experiencing issues with Zune itself, while others are having issues with carrier compatibility or slow servers. However, get past those minor hurdles and you won't have to contemplate a WP8 upgrade for some time.

Linky

[Gammaray]

My HTC is in for repairs. Do you have any idea how bad it is going back from Gingerbread to WinMo 6.1?
It's the 10th circle of hell I tell you. It makes me appreciate the smoothness of the Lumia tenfold.

[Wesley]

I recently had to work with a Nokia 3110C. Felt like I was going into the dark ages!

[pArkEr]

Okay, I have a decision to make, and I need to make it quickly.

"Upgrade" to a Samsung Galaxy Pocket, or keep my Motorola Defy?

Here's the catch. I dropped the Defy about a month ago, and there's a huge crack running on the bottom right to the middle of the screen. I've gotten used to it though, as it's only really noticeable when the screen is off. I'm still able to read ebooks and watch movies, usually filtering the presence of the crack out of my vision.

The Motorola also runs awfully slow at times, usually when I'm using more than one app at once, but I think I just need to install a new ROM, as I'm currently on a nightly.

I do love the phone though, but don't know whether getting the screen fixed will be worth the hassle when there's a brand new phone sitting on the table.

[.exe]

Can anyone tell me what GSM mode on a mobile phone means? (Rather urgent question.)

[maxdamage]

Can anyone tell me what GSM mode on a mobile phone means? (Rather urgent question.)

It means that the phone can be used with gsm(used in most parts of the world) or switched to cdma which is used in most parts of the USA to communicate and it has been set to GSM mode as thats what we use here in S.A.

[.exe]

Ok, thanks you for the explanation.

I nearly fainted the other day when I got a cellphone bill for R4856-00. I contacted vodacom, and apparently my phone has been accessing the 'net to presumably download updates. I've switched off automatic updates now, but even so, I've apparently used R105 worth of data in 4 days. (Up to but not including 5th March.)
It's freaking me out, because I dont dare go online with it anymore, yet I'm incurring this huge cost. I've turned off/disabled just about every function the phone has, and am going to monitor the results.
If the problem continues though, I'm going to go ballistic.

[cr@zydude]

Ok, thanks you for the explanation.

I nearly fainted the other day when I got a cellphone bill for R4856-00. I contacted vodacom, and apparently my phone has been accessing the 'net to presumably download updates. I've switched off automatic updates now, but even so, I've apparently used R105 worth of data in 4 days. (Up to but not including 5th March.)
It's freaking me out, because I dont dare go online with it anymore, yet I'm incurring this huge cost. I've turned off/disabled just about every function the phone has, and am going to monitor the results.
If the problem continues though, I'm going to go ballistic.

You've just encountered the out of bundle shark, it really sucks man. Smart phones like to be online all the time, and download updates, all the time. Vodacom will kindly charge you R2 per megabyte that you download.

Since Voadcom doesn't let you cap your data, download a program like Onavo count. It shows you how much data you have used. You can also set it to block your data at a set limit.

[Wesley]

What phone do you have, @.exe?

[.exe]

You've just encountered the out of bundle shark, it really sucks man. Smart phones like to be online all the time, and download updates, all the time. Vodacom will kindly charge you R2 per megabyte that you download.

Since Voadcom doesn't let you cap your data, download a program like Onavo count. It shows you how much data you have used. You can also set it to block your data at a set limit.

Thanks for that advice. I will definitely try and use this app.
@Wesley
It's a Nokia Lumia 920.

Edit:

Seems like Onavo Count is for Iphone/Android only. It's not a train smash though as I can monitor my usage on a daily basis through my itemised billing, but it's amazing to me that we can get sold a product but not forewarned about the potential for incurring huge costs because of user ignorance. o_o
Eyes wide open now, though.

[Wesley]

Wesley,
It's a Nokia Lumia 920.

In that case, Nokia also has Xpress Home. Give it a try and see how things go.

As far as data blockers go, however, Android is much better at it than WP.

[McDangerous]

My fiancé is getting her S3 today, moving over from BB to her first Android device. Any recommendations from the Android users to stop the almost inevitable first month bill shock? She has a wireless network she can connect to at work and at home luckily, so it's just the in-between times that she'll have to use her mobile data.

[Toxxyc]

Switch the phone on for the first time in a WiFi environment. Keep the SIM low on airtime and data package content until the WiFi is set up and connected. Update EVERYTHING over WiFi. This may take some time.

After updating, switch off background data and install Data Lock Lite (free) from Play Store. Monitor it for a few days to check her data transfer, and adjust apps as needed.

It's a good idea to keep WiFi use as high as possible. These new always-online things doesn't play along very nicely with our mobile networks.

Oh, and Angry Birds.